American Go E-Journal » Go News

The future of American youth go camps is very much in question, American Go Association President Allan Abramson tells the E-Journal. “On the one hand, the camps can be a great experience for our young players. On the other hand, after the last three years’ experience of low attendance and losing money each year, the Board and I have agreed that it may be time to recognize that the Congress itself has become the Go camp, and that the AGA should not guarantee funding for a separate camp anymore.” The AGA is looking for organizers/directors for the 2012 go camp(s), Abramson says, but warns that “Those who take on the task of organizing and running the camp will need to plan carefully to break even financially, at least.” Those interested in attending a camp will need to register early, as well, to ensure the survival of the camps. “Early registration will ensure that we have enough interest to hold the camp, while procrastination will ensure that the organizers will cancel the camp, rather than lose money.” Those interested in running a camp in 2012 should contact Abramson at president@usgo.org.

Barring a miracle by the Americans against China, the winner of the Japan-Korea match in the SportAccord World Mind Games on December 14 will take the team silver while China takes the gold. China defeated Japan 4-1 in the 4th round Tuesday, while Chinese Taipei shut out the Americans, winning all five of their games by resignation. Korea swept the European team. The loser of the Japan-Korea match will take the bronze medal. The mixed doubles rounds are scheduled for Thursday and Friday.- Based on James Davies’ detailed reports on Ranka Online, where you can also follow live matches, check out the schedule, results and participants.

December 12 was a rest day for the go competition at the SportAccord World Mind Games, but for a dozen or so of the players and officials, it was an opportunity to pay an afternoon visit to the Zhang Guan Gun No. 3 Elementary School. This is one of the schools in Beijing where the pupils also learn to play go. About two dozen schoolboys, dressed in light blue school uniforms, were lined up inside the school gate to greet the bus carrying the players and officials, escort them to the school meeting room, and present them with self-made gifts.

“We played one-on-two simultaneous games with representatives from the 5th and 6th grades,” says Thomas Hsiang, a 7-dan. “My two opponents were 3D players and both took only three stones. We played in their go classrooms, on tables specially made just for playing go. It was there that one sees the future of go in China and understands why it will be hard for others to compete with the Chinese in go in the foreseeable future.”

In an unscheduled event, Andrew Okun (right), the American team captain, dropped in on a lesson in a regular classroom to give some second graders a chance to practice their English. They peppered him with questions. Where do you live? Los Angeles. Do you like chicken? Yes. Do you also like duck? Yes. Do you like ice cream? Yes, I like it too much (patting midsection). After ten minutes or so, Okun ended the session with a question to the class: Do you like studying English? The class went wild in shouting Yes.

Back in the go classroom the games were still in progress. On the whole, the pupils were acquitting themselves well but finding that without a handicap, beating world-class professional players and even world-class European amateurs and IGF Vice Presidents is not so easy. Unfortunately, the bus had to leave and some of the pupils’ parents had come to get them, so the games were cut short, farewells were bid, and a smiling group of players and officials returned to the Beijing Intercontinental Grand Hotel.

- James Davies, with additional reporting by Thomas Hsiang; photos courtesy Ranka Online; where you can read Davies’ full report.

Thanks to Gayla Halbrecht of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, the Triangle Go Group has a new batch of go equipment to continue their outreach efforts in local middle schools and at their club locations. Halbrecht (at right in photo) donated her late husband Herbert’s equipment to the Go Group. Herbert Halbrecht (at left), who took up the challenge of learning go in his ‘80s and wished to bring the game to his fellow seniors, “was an amazing, enthusiastic guy who was always looking for ways to stretch the conventional wisdom about the aging brain,” Paul Celmer tells the E-Journal. “He was an inspiration and it was a privilege to have met him.” American Go Association President Allan Abramson added that “People like Herbert are what keep us working hard to spread go.”

The future of North American go was on full display this past Sunday at the 4th US-Canada Youth Friendship Match, held on KGS and viewed by over 250 go fans. With many exciting matches featuring intense middle games, the Canadians managed to pull away for the third year in a row, posting a 4-1 victory over the U.S. In a rematch of last year’s top board, Ryan Li, the runner up to the 2010 and 2011 Canadian Opens, once again managed to best Calvin Sun in a close match featuring a territory versus influence battle. Intense fighting was the theme of the next few boards, with Gansheng Shi, Jianing Gan, and Andrew Huang of Canada posting victories for Canada, and the lone American win from USYGC Champion Vincent Zhuang. With such a strong showing overall, the North American team has a chance to reclaim victory against the European youth in the Transatlantic Match that will be played next spring. Full results can be seen here. -Special report by Lawrence Ku

In the third round of the team competitions at the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing, China, the United States finally scored a team win when Mingjiu Jiang forced Catalin Taranu to resign, after Andy Liu and Feng Yun won against Cornel Burzo and Vanessa Wong, reports Thomas Hsiang. Jie Li, however, lost by 2.5 points to Cristian Pop in a game that both players thought Jie had won. Kevin Huang then lost to Jan Simara, making the team score 3-2. The US will now probably finish 5th.

The other match, pitting China against Korea, attracted the attention of a lot of the Chinese pros. Wang Runan, Hua Yigang, Hua Xueming, and Yu Bin – the president, vice president, men’s team coach, and women’s team coach of China Weiqi Association – all showed up to watch. There were lively discussions in the study room around the several large-screen TV’s showing the key games. In the game between Kong Jie and Lee Sedol, Kong had a good opening and took the lead early on. But Lee fought back with a clever maneuver to reverse the situation and won at the end. On the second table, Gu Li (right) trailed Choi Chulhan early, causing tense moments among the Chinese audience. But, in a marvelous display of his recent strong form, Gu fought back little bit by little bit. In the end he found a ko and took a firm lead when Choi could not find a large enough threat for the ko. With Xie He and Li He winning, China was assured of a 3-2 victory. China will now probably win the gold medal.

Between Korea and China, there have been three international mind-sport team clashes. In the 2008 WMSG and the 2010 Asian Games, Korea won both by a 4-1 score. So for China, this was a sweet victory indeed.

In the third match, Japan won surprisingly easily with a score of 4-1 against Chinese Taipei. Only Yamashiro Hiroshi lost on the second table to Hsiao Cheng-hao. Japan will now probably take the bronze.

Tomorrow (12/12) is the off day for Go. SportAccord and the Beijing government have arranged a visit for some of the go players to a middle school for a teaching and promotional event. Representing US and EU will be Mingjiu Jiang and Vanessa Wong.Click here for James Davies’ detailed reports on Ranka Online, where you can also follow live matches, check out the schedule, results and participants.photo courtesy Ranka Online

Many employers have matching programs, where an employee’s gift to a charity is matched by the company. The Seattle Go Center’s relationship with generous go players at Microsoft, for example, is an important part of their funding base through the matching gift program. “With annual giving campaigns going on now, if your company has such a program, please consider a gift to the AGA or the AGF,” urges American Go Association’s National Fundraising Committee Chair Peter Freedman. Freedman notes that only the AGF is a 501c3 organization eligible for tax deductible donations; the AGA is a 501c4, and donations to it are not tax deductible. If your company needs an EIN number, the EIN for the American Go Association is 133643868 and for the United States Go Foundation the EIN is 133621764.

“Today’s games were uneventful,” reports Thomas Hsiang from Day Two of the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing, China. “Japan, Korea, China cruised to 5-win victories versus the EU, US, and Chinese Taipei teams. Andy Liu played against Park Jeonghwan today (12/10) and said he was thoroughly impressed. ‘I did not even know how I lost. Park’s play was perfect’”. Chinese Taipei’s popular Hei Jia-jia played a tough game against Li He, a game featured on the net broadcast. The game also attracted many pros in the study room. After an early exchange that favored Li, Jia-jia fought furiously back in an exciting fighting game. But in the end she still fell short.”

Tomorrow will see the EU pitted against US; the winner will avoid a last-place finish. Also, China and Korea will crash to produce the likely champion team. Japan will play Chinese Taipei for a probable third place.

“Andy Okun and I had a two-hour interview with Lee Youngho, brother of Lee Changho, and Xie Rui, the top Weiqi reporter in China who works for Titan Journal, a sports newspaper. Based on this interview, Titan will publish a feature story about go in America in its next issue.”

Click here for James Davies’ more detailed reports on Ranka Online, where you can also follow live matches, check out the schedule, results and participants.photo: SAWMG Opening Ceremonies; collage courtesy Ranka Online

Chapters and tournament directors are being sought to host qualifiers for the 2012 North American Masters’ Tournament (NAMT), which will take place at the 2012 Go Congress in Black Mountain, North Carolina. “Up to eight qualifying tournaments will be sanctioned,” reports AGA Tournament Coordinator Karoline Burrall, two in each region — East, West, and Central — and two online tournaments. “Because go players are so spread out across the country, hosting these qualifiers is essential to allow as many eligible players as possible to compete and accumulate points,” Burrall adds. Any chapter holding a tournament and interested in turning it into a NAMT qualifier can email Burrall at tournaments@usgo.org.

Results from the first day’s team competitions at the SportAccord World Mind Games in Beijing, China on December 9 went pretty much as expected, Thomas Hsiang tells the E-Journal, with China, Japan, and Korea winning against EU, US, and Chinese Taipei. “Chinese Taipei nearly pulled an upset when Chen Shih-iuan defeated Lee Sedol, and Hei Jia-jia (Joanne Missingham) won against Kim Hyemin. In the game that finished last, the young boy Wang Yuan-jun — only 14! — was leading in his game against Lee Younggo. Lee finally prevailed and dashed Chinese Taipei’s hope for a big upset.”

The U.S. lost to Japan 0-5, but Andy Liu and Jie Li (right) both had their chances, Hsiang reports. “Andy played ‘fast and very smart’ against Sakai Hideaki, according to Gu Li and Kong Jie, the two Chinese world champions. Gu Li spent more than an hour watching Andy and told me afterwards that he was very impressed and ‘that unknown young man had a good game and many chances to win’. Jie lost to Yamashiro Hiroshi by just a half-point, and also had many chances to win, according to Kong Jie. So our young players made a very positive impression.”

EU lost to China 0-5.

The broadcasting schedule for December 10 will feature the game between Hei Jia-jia and Li He — “the ‘game of the two beauties,’ as they say here in China,” says Hsiang. Tentatively, Andy Liu will be featured on the 14th when he plays against Xie He from China.

Click here for James Davies’ more detailed reports on Ranka Online, where you can also follow live matches, check out the schedule, results and participants.

In other news, Hsiang reports that “the International Go Federation (IGF) held a special Board Meeting today (12/9). I invited (AGA Board member) Andy Okun (in dark blue shirt in photo below) as an observer. Many things were discussed, including an IGF proposal that will fund two projects in the Americas: the AGA’s plan for an international go symposium and the Iberoamerican Go Federation’s plan to start a pilot project teaching go in Venezuela schools. This proposal now moves forward to IMSA.” The AGA’s plan to establish a pro system was met with great enthusiasm and encouragement, Hsiang reports. The IGF is starting to plan the next round of the SportAccord World Mind Games that will now be featured for at least five years. Hsiang and Yuki Shigeno will again represent the IGF in negotiations with SportAccord. Brunei will be next IGF member, with Kazistan likely to follow. The Ing Foundation will apply to become a new Association Member of IGF; its president, Mr. Ying Ming-haw, has been invited to become an at-large Director of the IGF. WAGC 2012 will be held in Guangzhou, May 11-18, and the 2012 WAGC 2013 will be held in Japan, with site selection and date to be announced in May 2012. There is still no site contract for World Mind Sports Games II in 2012 and the event is unlikely to take place.photos: US team player Jie Li (top right); team captains (bottom left); photos courtesy Ranka Online.